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NO. 1 



West Virginia Steadfast for 
Roosevelt 




SPEECH OF 

William Seymour Edwards 

/i 

Member of the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE for West Va. 



DELIVERED AT THE OPERA HOUSE 

AT CHARLESTON-KAXAWHA, 
West Virginia. 

TUESDAY, JULY 30tii. 1912. 



A Report of the Part taken by the Republican Delegation from West 

Virginia in the Republican National Convention, held in 

Chicago, 111., the week beginning June 18th, 1912 

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, 

FELLOW REPUBLICANS: 

PART I. 
CALL FOR STATE CONVENVC 

On or about the 17th day of February 1912, Ee- 

publican State Committee of West Virginia s^^^ w for 
a S'tate Convention to be held in the City of Huntington, 
upon the 16th day of May, 1912. This call d^ si >>d the n- 
vention to be convened for the purpose of ele tin ? six Dele- 
gates at Large and six Alternates at Large ti he National 
Eepublican Convention, to be held upon the 11 x day of th 
succeeding month of June, in Chicago, ILL, three Presiden 
tial Electors and two judges of the Supreme Court f Ap 
peals ; who should all be voted for in the Novembei election 
following. 

CALL REGULAR IN FORM, REVOLUTIONARY IN FACT. 

The call was regular and in due form. In one particular 
it was peculiar and unprecedented: — To-wit: — It required 
the Eepublican voters of the State to meet together in mass 
convention in EVEEY magisterial District in the State 
and in and from these County Mass conventions to send 
Delegates direct to the State Convention at Huntington. 
The call ignored County and Congress-District line? ; it 
required the Eepublican voters of the entire state j 
semble in nearly four hundred County-District mas 
ventions and themselves then and there choose Delegates 
who should go up direct to the final State Convention. The 
call was almost revolutionary in its provisions wherein it 
attempted to assure a State Convention composed of Dele- 
gates fresh and direct from the people and who should, 
consequently, be abie to reflect and express with the highest 
exactness the sentiment and preference of the Eepublican 
voters of the State. To all intents: and .purposes, the call 
provided a method which should be as conclusive in deter- 
mining the Will of the Eepublican voters of the State, as 
lc control Nuz*> er P een a state - wide Primary. 




tmp96 027151 



CONGRESS-DISTRICT CONVENTIONS. 

Acting in harmonious accord with the State Committee, 
the several Congress-District Committees in due time 
called, also, their several conventions, and likewise directed 
the Kepublican voters within their respective Congress- 
Districts to meet in County-District Mass Conventions, at 
the same time and places as named in the call of the State 
Committee, for the purpose, among other things, of selecting 
delegates to the several Congress-District Conventions — • 
which, by agreement, were all called to canvene in their 
respective Congress-Districts on the 15th day of May — 
being the day preceding the date set for the meeting of the 
State Convention at Huntington. Thus, the several Con- 
gress-District Conventions were assured of being made up 
of delegates coming direct from the people, also, and who 
might be expected as perfectly to reflect the will and pur- 
pose of the Eepublican voters of the Congress-Districts, as 
would the delegates going up from the same County-Dis- 
trict Mass Conventions to the subsequently convening State 
Convention. 

FOUR HUNDRED CONVENTIONS DULY HELD. 

It is a matter of history that these almost four hundred 
County-District Mass conventions were duly held; that the 
several Congress-District Conventions were likewise duly 
held; and that the State Convention at Huntington met and 
performed the duties for which it assembled. 

FREE EXPRESSION GIVEN. 

It is known that throughout the state, in these many 
County-Mass Conventions, the Republican voters met to- 
gether in greatest harmoay and gave free and direct expres- 
sion to their sentiment regarding the action of the several 
Congress-District and State Conventions, subsequently to 
be held. 

These County -District Mass Conventions of the Repub- 
lican voters, revealed two things: — First, that the voters 
stood almost solidly for the nomination of Theodore Roose- 
velt as Candidate for President of the United States ; and 
second, that they were against all men and all measures 
savoring of opposition to what are universally known as 
4 'the Roosevelt Progressive Policies." 



FOR ROOSEVELT AND EDWARDS. 

When the several Congress-District Conventions met 
upon the 15th day of May, and chose each their electors 
and their Delegates and Alternates to the National Eepub- 
lican- Convention at Chicago, they, with extraordinary una- 
nimity, instructed their Delegates and Alternates to support 
the candidacy of Theodore Eoosevelt; and, furthermore, 
either elected Delegates and Alternates favorable to the 
selection of William Seymour Edwards as Member of the 
Eepublican National Committee for West Virginia, or, as in 
the III, IV and V Congress-Districts, instructed directly 
for him. 

When the State Convention met at Huntington the follow- 
ing day, May 16th, the sentiment of the Delegates spoke 
with similar emphasis, and six Delegates at Large and six 
Alternates at Large were chosen, and instructed to sup- 
port the candidacy of Theodore Eoosevelt for nomination 
for President of the United States, " First, last and all the 
time;" and, unanimous instructions were given these Dele- 
gates to declare William Seymour Edwards member of the 
Eepublican National Committee for West Virginia. 

COMMANDS TO DELEGATES. 

Thus, all Delegates and Alternates to the Eepublican 
National Convention, selected by Congress-District Con- 
ventions and by the State Convention, were instructed for 
Theodore Eoosevelt and for William Seymour Edwards; 
and it is to be presumed that this action of these conven- 
tions, unanimous in every instance, reflected an equally 
positive sentiment upon the part of the Eepublican voters 
behind them. 

ROOSEVELT ELECTORS CHOSEN. 

In the case of the three electors chosen by the State Con- 
vention at Huntington, and the five electors chosen, one each, 
by the respective Congress-District Conventions, the senti- 
ment revealed in selecting them was equally pronounced, 
for not only were they selected at Huntington by a conven- 
tion dominated by the Eoosevelt sentiment (732 Eoosevelt 
Delegates to 161 Taft Delegates), but they were chosen from 
among men known and proven to be sincere and true sup- 
porters of the Progressive Eoosevelt policies, and whom it 



was deemed neither craft nor graft could seduce or detach 
from the cause of the plain people, for which the Roosevelt 
Candidacy then stood and yet stands today. And all of 
whom, it was believed, would perform their full duties 
under the constitution. 

ALL CONVENTIONS REGULAR. 

In all of these County Mass Conventions, Congress-Dis- 
trict and State Conventions the proceedings were regular, 
unchallenged and conclusive — they were thoroughly repre- 
sentative of the sentiment and will of the Sovereign Repub 
lican voters of the State. 

STATE-WIDE PRIMARY. 

At a subsequent date, upon the 4th day of June, 1912, pur- 
suant to due call of the Republican State Committee, a state- 
wide primary was held in which State and Congressional 
nominees, and county candidates for the Legislature (House 
of Delegates and Senate), were duly chosen by the Repub- 
lican electorate of the State. 

FULL TICKET IN STATE NOW CHOSEN. 

Thus, we have before us today. Eight Presidential Elec- 
tors, a full State ticket, full Congressional tickets and full 
County tickets, which the Republican voters of the state 
will vote upon at the elections to be held upon the second 
Tuesday of November next. 

DELEGATES TRUE TO INSTRUCTIONS. 

Obeying the instructions originally emanating from the 
people in their County-District Mass Conventions and 
transmitted through their Congress-District and State Con- 
ventions to their Delegates to Chicago, those Delegates re- 
mained true to the indicated Will of the sovereign voters, 
performing loyally and consistently those high duties with 
which they were charged. 

COMMANDS TO DELEGATES. 

Two commands had been laid upon these Delegates : 

(1) To support the candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt, 
and the policies of the Square Deal for which he stands, and 

(2) To formally elect the already chosen National Com- 
mitteeman, theretofore instructed for by the Republican 
voters of the State, William Seymour Edwards. 



STAND OF DELEGATES WELL KNOWN. 

It is a matter well known, how faithfully and fearlessly 
your Delegates carried out these commands; how in the Na- 
tional Convention, and out of it, your Delegates stood to a 
man for integrity, for honor and for fair-play. 

How, they stood like a rock of adamant against dishon- 
esty, high-handed steam-roller tactics, corrupt and corrupt- 
ing use of public patronage, heinous prostitution of place 
and power. 

How, they opposed unfalteringly the unconscionable and 
unscrupulous methods employed by an already discredited 
and expiring majority of the Eepublican National Commit- 
tee, in seating partizan contestants, who were neither mor- 
ally nor legally entitled to seats upon the floor of the con- 
vention, whereby was made up a dishonest Temporary Eoll 
of Delegates. 

How, they withstood the bold and unfair conspiracy of a 
packed and partizan majority of the Committee on Creden- 
tials to seat in the Convention, as permanent Delegates, 
men having neither legal nor equitable right to such repre- 
sentation ! 

How, they withstood the partizan ruling of the Tempor- 
ary Chairman of the convention, holding as all honest men 
must hold, that no man is entitled in justice to sit upon a 
jury which tries his own crime or that of his accomplices, 
when that Chairman permitted such contested claimants to 
vote as members of the convention upon cases similar to 
their own, thereby helping to create precedents in their own 
behalf, to be used when their own cases should in due course 
be presented to the consideration of the convention! 

REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE. 

How they, upon this final, flagrant and iniquitous abuse 
of right, thereafter refused to take further part in the pro- 
ceedings of a convention which they deemed to be sitting 
morally and legally in contravention of the expressed and 
declared will of the majority of the Eepublican voters of the 
Nation, as well as in flagrant contravention to the expressed 
and declared will of the great majority of the Eepublican 
voters of the State of West Virginia. 

How, the Delegates of West Virginia, in full accord with 
delegates from twenty great Eepublican states, (to-wit: 



the states of California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, 
Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, 
Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, (North Carolina), Ohio, 
(Oklahoma), Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, Penn- 
sylvania, Wisconsin and two from Vermont and thirteen 
from New York, refused to further participate in the trans- 
actions of a convention whose proceedings had already been 
thus vitiated by persistent and flagrant fraud. 

REFUSE TO RECOGNIZE NOMINATION. 

How they, along with those Delegates representing twenty 
great Republican States, and representing a majority of 
more than Two Millions of the Republican Voters of the 
nation, refused to participate in or recognize as valid a so 
called nomination put upon the country by bold and deliber- 
ate fraud. 

It is a matter well known, how they in company with 
delegates representing an overwhelming majority of the 
Republican electorate of the Nation, knowing themselves 
and the people behind them to be responsive to a positive 
and honorable sentiment for the nomination of a candidate 
representative of the proposition that THE PEOPLE, and 
not the Machine and Bosses shall Rule, and against the 
nomination of any candidate representative of privilege 
and vested power, returned from that convention free to 
declare that the so-called nominations of Wm. H. Taft and 
James S. Sherman were, by reason of their iniquity and 
wrong, IRREGULAR and not binding upon the Republican 
voters of this State and Nation, either in conscience or in 
law. 

PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION NOW HISTORY. 

All of these proceedings of the Convention herein set 
forth are now inscribed upon the pages of history and lie 
wide open to the gaze and scrutiny of an attentive world. 

There are indelibly writ : — 

INJUSTICE OF EXPIRING NATIONAL COMMITTEE. 

The fierce and intolerant strangling of justice on the part 
of the already discredited and expiring National Committee, 
whose moribund majority had already been wiped out by 
the newly chosen Committeemen, newly sent up from states 
where bosses and machines had been wholly or partially 



8 

smashed and the people had in greater or lesser measure 
regained their right to rule, viz.: California, Illinois, Iowa, 
Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New 
Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, 
Washington and West Virginia, and which committee in 
the dying moments of its power, conspired to rob the nation, 
and to rob you, of the fruits of your already spoken Will, 
through the making up of an untrue Temporary Roll of 
Delegates. 

THEFT BY COMMITTEE ON CREDENTIALS. 

The ruthless and unblushing theft of regularly chosen 
Delegates by a packed and predacious Committee on Cre- 
dentials, in its attempt to consummate the political rape 
already incited by the discredited majority of the expiring 
National Committee ! 

UNFAIR RULINGS OF TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN. 

The arrogant and unfair rulings of a temporary chair- 
man, elected by fraudulent votes, and playing the game to 
the wanton limit of his masters ' will. 

TAFT'S STOLEN NOMINATION HOPELESS. 

The apparent momentary triumph of dishonesty and 
crooked practice, by which was secured the seeming nomina- 
tion of Wm. H. Taft by the pitiful margin of twenty one 
votes; and of whose accredited total of five hundred and 
sixty one votes, there were deliberately stolen not less than 
ninety, while two hundred and fourteen (allowing for eight 
Texas votes deducted # and included in the ninety) of the 
remaining votes were manipulated out of eleven southern 
democratic states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, 
Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennes- 
see, Texas and Virginia), the District of Columbia, three 
Dependencies (Hawaii, the Phillipines and Porto Rico), and 
the Territory of Alaska, all of which elect not a single Re- 
publican elector, and two vo+es which were tricked out of 
the State of Massachusetts; whereby it becomes painfully 
evident that the Taft candidacy received, at most, barely 
two hundred and fifty-five votes from actual Republican 
states, which at best could not hope to elect more than one 
hundred and twenty-seven electors out of the two hundred 
and sixty-six electors necessary to choose a President. 



THIEVING BOSSES FOR THEMSELVES ONLY. 

And whereby, a purported nomination was foisted upon 
the Republican voters of the Nation, misrepresentative of 
the sentiment and wishes of a majority of the electorate, 
and, on its face, impossible to carry into successful election. 
A vain attempt of party bosses and vested privilege to it- 
self retain control of the machinery of power at the cost of 
the welfare and wishes of the majority of the Republican 
voters of the Nation. 

TAFT AND SHERMAN NOT THE REGULAR NOMINEES. 

It is because of these momentous and flagrant political 
crimes, because of this theft of your and my own political 
rights, and of the political rights of the free people of the 
Nation, that I, as one of your Delegates who witnessed and 
participated in the transactions of that convention, feel in 
conscience bound to now solemnly protest that William H. 
Taft and James Schoolcraft Sherman are not the honestly 
chosen and Regularly nominated candidates of the Republi- 
can party of the Nation, nor, yet more, of the Republican 
party of this state. 

ROOSEVELT THE REGULAR NOMINEE. 

And I do not hesitate to here assert that the only Regu- 
lar Nominee of the Republicans of the Nation and of the 
State of West Virginia, representative of the sentimental 
a majority of the great Republican states, representative 
of a majority of more than two millions of the Republican 
voters of the United States, representative of nine tenths of 
the Republican voters of the State of West Virginia, is 
and can be none other than THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

While it mav be true, that in this state there exist, here 
and there, a largely patronage-fed and place-hunting mi- 
nority who adhere to the Republican Party so long as its 
dimes and dollars adhere to them, and who, hoping for 
place and profit, now announce themselves as for the can- 
didacy of Mr. Taft, yet, on the other hand, as demonstrated 
by the sentiment overwhelmingly expressed in the series of 
notable conventions already held in this State during the 
past four months, there exists a great and increasing ma- 
jority of Republican voters, men who have been and are to- 
day the back-bone and sinew of the Republican party in 



10 

West Virginia, who recognize the inevitable and certain 
nomination of Theodore Roosevelt in the June Convention 
at Chicago, if it had not been for the open and notorious 
theft of delegates there committed. 

ROOSEVELT REPUBLICANS CONTROL PARTY. 

In this State, where the rank and file of the Republican 
party stand nine to one for Theodore Roosevelt and the 
Progressive Policies of the Square Deal, and where the 
majority does and must govern, how absurd is it to pre- 
tend that the ten per cent, can or ought to rule the ninety 
per cent. — that the tail shall wag the dog — and that the 
steadfast majority, adhering to their determinations here- 
tofore overwhelmingly expressed in their many County- 
District, Congress-District and State Conventions, shall 
now surrender to already discredited minorities and yield 
their ancient and unchallenged right to be what, in fact, 
they are— the real REPUBLICAN PARTY of West Vir- 
ginia! 

CONCERN OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY OVER REPUBLICAN 
REGULARITY. 

At the present moment, the Democratic Party is giving 
itself great concern over what is by it declared to be the 
" Regularity " of the Republican voters in West Virginia, 
and they are trying to make out that *the great majority 
of the Republican voters of this state, who, I dare to assert, 
stand nine to one for the Roosevelt candidacy as against the 
candidacy of Mr. Taft, have become "Irregular" because 
they still stand where they have always stood, for Common 
Honesty and the Square Deal ! 

Where originates this strange doctrine, which teaches 
that because men stand for Honesty and the Square Deal, 
that they thereby become Irregular, while the conspiring 
thief, who profits by the felony, shall be counted Regular? 
What fantastic perversion of the practice of good morals 
and fair play is this pretense ? 

STOLEN NOMINATION IRREGULAR. 

The great Convention at Chicago became IRREGULAR 
the very moment it became dominated by a stolen majority 
conspiring to sand-bag the voters of the State and Nation ; 
and the candidacy of ^THEODORE ROOSEVELT became 



11 

REGULAR and inevitable the very moment that the Dele- 
gates reflecting the public conscience of a majority of more 
than two millions of the Republican voters of the Nation, 
refused to further participate in the proceedings of that 
Convention, for the reason that therein a great political 
crime had been committed. 

IS FOREBODED AND FORETOLD. 

How solemn the occasion ! How ominous the spectacle ! 

The honestly elected delegates, representative of a ma- 
jority of the great Republican States of the land, within the 
womb of whose constant majorities is nurtured all perma- 
nent Republican power in the Nation, sitting in angry, silent 
protest ; representing in their dignity and wrath more than 
four millions of the Republican voters of the Nation, and 
actual majorities of more than two millions of Republican 
votes, with the consequent majority of those Electors, all of 
whom are needed to elect a Republican President! 

It foreboded the inevitable and crushing defeat of the Ir- 
regular and Dishonestly nominated candidates of the actual 
or real minority, Wm. H. Taft and James S. Sherman. 

It foretold, with portentious significance, that, within the 
clean hearts of the Republican masses of the land, Honesty 
must ever be the test of REGULARITY, and that those can- 
didates who shall be Honestly nominated in convention and 
primary, and those alone, shall be taken to be the REGU- 
LAR candidates of the Republican Party . 

ROOSEVELT SENTIMENT RULES KANAWHA. 

Reflecting the ruling sentiment of the Republican voters 
of the great county of Kanawha, of the men who toil, of the 
men who make this great county the chiefest of the mining 
and oil producing counties of the State of West Virginia, I 
stood last April for the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt, 
and all which that candidacy meant; and standing so, was 
backed by the solid and dominating votes of Kanawha's Re- 
publican electorate. Today, the Republican rank and file of 
Kanawha County, so far as I am able to discern, stand now 
where they stood three months ago. They are still over- 
whelmingly for the candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt and 
the progressive policies he represents ! 



12 

ROOSEVELT SENTIMENT RULES WEST VIRGINIA. 

Eeflecting the ruling sentiment of the Republican voters 
of West Virginia, as it is today, it is my information and 
observation that they, like their brothers in Kanawha, yet 
stand even as pronouncedly as they stood three months ago, 
for the candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt and the proposi- 
tion that the People, not machines and bosses, ought to rule 
and shall Rule! 

The Republican voters of West Virginia stand today 
where they stood at the time of the holding of the County- 
District Mass Conventions, the Congress-District and State 
Conventions, and the State- wide Primary. They are for 
Hatfield, they are for the State, Congressional and County 
tickets, and they still hold Theodore Roosevelt in their 
hearts ! 

THE STATE PLATFORM IS PROGRESSIVE. 

The platform adopted at the State Convention at Hunt- 
ington is as progressive and as alive to the commanding 
issues of the day as any in the land. In this alert and ad- 
vancing commonwealth, the Republican Party, rank and 
file, is a Progressive Party. It is in full accord and sympa- 
thy with the Progressive Republican majorities of the 
Nation. 

SUPPORT OF STATE TICKET ONLY TEST OF REGULARITY. 

As has already been declared by the Republican Party 
in Convention assembled, in the great Progressive state of 
Iowa, held some two weeks ago, the test of Regularity in 
West Virginia as in Iowa, and the only test, is and alone 
can be, the support of our already nominated State and 
Congressional Tickets ! 

MATTER OF CONSCIENCE. 

Whether or no the Republicans of West Virginia shall 
stultify themselves by supporting the Irregular and Stolen 
nomination of W. H. Taft and James S. Sherman, or whe- 
ther they shall stand steadfast for the Regularity of Hon- 
esty, and consequently, support the candidacy of Theodore 
Roosevelt, is a matter of conscience, to be decided between 
each individual and his God ! 

You and I, in all equity and good conscience, are the Reg- 
ular Republicans of West Virginia. You and I, in our rep- 
resentative capacities, stand for the overwhelming senti- 
ment of the Republican masses of this State and Nation ! 



13 

CANDIDATES MUST MERIT SUPPORT OF ROOSEVELT 
REPUBLICANS. 

It is the pride of our Republicanism that we stand in full 
and cordial support of our State and Congressional tickets, 
for all that the Republican majorities in West Virginia 
have declared, but, none the less, it is fair, it is of good sooth 
to all candidates, that we say to them in perfect frankness, 
that if they desire to profit by the dominating sentiment of 
the Roosevelt movement in this state, then it is up to them, 
each and all, to merit its esteem ! 

ROOSEVELT CANDIDACY AND PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO RULE ARE ONE. 

The Candidacy of Theodore Roosevelt for President of 
these United States and the Party Platform declaring for 
the People's Right to Rule already glow emblazened in 
the sky ! They stand and fall together, and no Republican 
candidate who does not cordially sympathize with the great 
popular movement they represent, stands, or ought to stand, 
any chance of election to office in West Virginia ! 

INSTRUCT ELESTORS FOR ROOSEVELT. 

Furthermore, it is your primitive right, and mine, repu- 
diating the irregularity and the fraudulent transactions of 
the misrepresentative convention in Chicago (held in June), 
to rise in our sovereign might and by our votes, when cast 
next November, thereby instruct our already selected Elec- 
tors how we require them to cast their ballots in the Elec- 
toral College in December next! 

By the doctrine and teaching of the Constitution of the 
United States, they are left free to act. They are beyond 
the authority of any individual man or group of men. It is 
reserved to their own calm and deliberate judgment, as the 
representatives of the sentiment of the majority of the Re- 
publican voters of their state, so to cast their votes in the 
Electoral College, that they shall thereby express the Will 
of the sovereign voters who elect them. 

It is now up to you and to those sovereign Republican 
voters, so to arrange it that the instructions given these 
Electors shall be clear and unquestioned . Your majorities 
must be conclusive. 

This, I take it, is what you are now gathered here to do. 
Whether you shall speak through the scratching of your 
ballot, or whether you shall speak through the technical 



14 

necessity of presenting to the people a separate Progres- 
sive Eepublican Ticket, it is all the same. It is your busi- 
ness as lovers of justice, as men raised in the great 
traditions of Protest, from which sprang the great Free 
Soil party of 1856, and the greater Eepublican party of 
1860, to assert your manhood, your highest sense of good 
citizenship, and by your ballots, when they are cast, to re- 
buke the wrong and make good the right and declare your 
will beyond all peradventure and all doubt ! 

STEADFAST ARE WEST VIRGINIANS. 

We West Virginians are a steadfast people! Descended 
from heroes who fought the battles of our country for 
more than two hundred years, we are not wont to run when 
we stand upon the fighting lines. When we espouse a right- 
eous cause we stand by it, we fight for it. we die for it if 
need be, or we triumph in the end. 

Men who are bred to the mountains! 

Women who dwell in the dales! 

Ye 've learned that from Liberty 's fountains 

'Tis justice that ever prevails ! 

Like thy fathers who watched on the border, 

Defending the line of the west 

From Indian and Gallic marauder, 

Their sons, ye are true to the test! 

They perished with Braddock at Pittsburgh ; 
They, starving, held grim Valley Forge ; 
With Washington conquered at Trenton; 
At Yorktown, smote tyrant King George; 
At New Orleans they shot straight with Jackson ; 
Buena Vista's great victory gain, 
When Taylor broke fierce Santa Ana, 
Kevenging the Alamo's slain! 

And when the dark cloud of Secession 
Came creeping over the land; 
When slavery's sullen aggression 
From whimper turned into command, 
Then, instant, from mountain and valley, 
From mansion and cabin, as one, 
At the first call of Lincoln they rally, 
And save what their fathers have won ! 



15 

GREATEST MORAL CRISIS. 

We are now facing the greatest moral crisis which has 
confronted the nation since the glories and the tears of the 
Civil War! Then, justice smote slavery and God gave us 
strength, under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, to make 
men free. 

Now again, are we facing an issue as greatly fraught as 
then with momentous moral consequences to the Nation: 
SHALL THE PEOPLE OR THE BOSSES RULE? The 
Lord God of Hosts will not now forsake his people in this 
their hour of need! 

PART II. 
THE NEW NATIONAL COMMITTEEMAN. 

Now, as to the second mandate laid upon your Delegation 
to Chicago: — 

The Republican voters of West Virginia in their several 
County-Mass Conventions, either elected Dele^atete fav- 
orable to, or instructed them for, William Seymour Ed- 
wards as member of the National Republican Committee 
to succeed the late Senator Nathan B. Scott, therein and 
thereby expressing their desires and commands. Never 
before in the history of the Republican party in West Vir- 
ginia had the sovereign people taken it into their own hands 
to render so widespread an expression of their will in the 
matter of filling fitly this important post ! 

CONGRESS-DISTRICT AND STATE CONVENTIONS INSTRUCT. 

Responding to the expressed sentiment of the County- 
Mass Conventions, the Congress-District Conventions in 
the I and II Congress-Districts selected National Delegates 
favorable to the wishes of the voters as already expressed ; 
and in the III, IV and V Congress-District Conventions, 
and in the State Convention, unanimous instructions were 
given, directing the Delegation of West Virginia, at the 
National Republican Convention at Chicago, to carry out 
the will of the Republican voters of the State 

DELEGATION AT CHICAGO ELECTS. 

At the meeting of the West Virginia delegation, held in 
Chicago upon the 18th day of June, 1912, the Delegation 
unanimously elected William Seymour Edwards Member 
of the National Republican Committee, giving expression 



16 

thereby to the will of the sovereign Republican voters of 
the State of West Virginia. 

CHOICE DECLARED TO NATIONAL CONVENTION. 

At a subsequent hour, upon the same day, the Chairman 
of the West Virginia Delegation, Governor Wm. E. Glass- 
cock, duly notified the National Convention, through the 
usual channels, of the action of the West Virginia Bepub- 
licans, and this action was to that Convention formally de- 
clared. 

WILL OF THE PEOPLE PREVAILS. 

Thereupon, Mr. Edwards, by virtue of the will of the 
sovereign voters of the Bepublican Party of West Virginia, 
and responsible to them and to none other, as their chosen 
and declared representative upon the National Bepublican 
Committee, entered upon the duties of that post. 

Thus, as a Delegate duly chosen and empowered by the 
sovereign Bepublican voters of West Virginia, and as the 
Bepresentative of these voters upon the Bepublican Nation- 
al Committee, it is my privilege to say to you and to the 
sovereign Bepublican voters of this state, that the Dele- 
gation unanimously ratified your choice for Member of the 
Bepublican National Committee for West Virginia, and 
thereby made it possible, for the first time in many 
years, that you should be represented upon that Commit 
tee by a Committeeman responsive to your Sovereign Will ! 

That the Delegation, throughout all sessions of that 
National Convention, in full sympathy with the overwhelm- 
ing sentiment you had theretofore expressed, and obedient 
to your commands, stood steadfast to the end, and, even 
yet so stands, for Theodore Boosevelt and the Progressive 
Square Deal Policies his candidacy represents, 

WE DARE TO PROTEST. 

We are all Bepublicans. Bepublicans loyal to the princi- 
ples of our fathers who stood with Lincoln and with Grant ; 
loyal to the proposition that at all times and in all places, 
Honesty and Honor must and shall prevail : that dishonesty 
and wrong shall perish. Nor do we fear to protest and at 
times to act, when such action translates such protest into 
an attempt to restore to the Nation those principles of 
RIGHTEOUSNESS upon which all TRUE PROGRESS 
must be based! 

IBUNE PRINTIN8 CO., CHARLESTON, W. VA. 



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